Numbers Game
by thubar2000
Summary: A one part vignette of Asuka studying at Hikari's place.


Numbers Game

A digital thermometer read 35 C, 95% relative humidity. Only 5% away from the release of rain. An electric fan feebly stirred the oppressive air. The artificial breeze stirred one of Asuka's girlish tails. The red head sat on the floor and leaned against Hikari's bed. She idly paged through a magazine. A photo shoot displayed a ghostly Japanese woman posing on a snow covered field. The complex beadwork in her hair looked interesting, but the winter clothing was a world away. Her clothes clung uncomfortably to her stickly skin.

Her friend reentered the room bearing a pitched of tea and a tray of snacks.

Hikari settled herself against a cabinet at a ninety degree angle from Asuka and set the refreshments between them. The curtain had been drawn against the ferocious sun.

"Thanks," Asuka said as she took a glass. She drained half of a glass of the barley tea. She passed the sweating glass over her brow. The melting ice cubes clinked.

"It's soo hot," Hikari pronounced. "I'm sorry that I can't switch on the A/C, but power rationed until eight o'clock tonight."

"Blame Shinji, he was probably the one who blew up the power station," Asuka declared. "I know that I didn't do it."

"There's nothing we can do about it now," Hikari replied philosophically. "Did you look at the Hattori Mifune article?"

"I glanced through it."  
"I wonder what it would be like to feel snow?" the freckled girl wondered. "Skiing looks like so much fun."  
"It's alright. I prefer snowboarding myself."

"Really?! When did you get to snowboard?"  
"I got to go to Norway once for pilot training," Asuka replied. "And got to try it. It was fun to try it out. Some of the instructors were cute, but still not as cool as my Kaji."

"It would be so great to feel cold, even if it's just once," Hikari said dreamily. "Asuka."  
"Yes?"

"Would you mind reading my horoscope?"  
"You read that drivel?" Asuka snorted.  
"It's just for fun. It's not like I run my life by it."  
"Fine, but if you start fondling goat intestines, I'm outta here."  
"Stop it, you're terrible."  
"What's your birthday?"  
"June 1st."

"Okay, June 22nd to July 22nd. Cancer, it's time to let you're emotional and loving side free reign and finally tell that special someone how you're feeling. You have a good chance for success,"Asuka intoned. "Ugh, who writes this crap?"  
"What does yours say?" Hikari asked.

Asuka scanned down the glossy page of red titled and black bodied sans serif font for December 4th. The entry was toward the bottom.

November 23 to December 21. Sagittarius, while you possess many good points, a shadow will fall over your star. Your dark side has more of a chance of showing itself this week. The archer is prone to be irresponsible, superficial, and tactless. This may lead you to hurt a close friend's or a potential love interest's feelings. For more information log onto pwb.zodiacweekly.biz

Irresponsible? Superficial? Tactless? She furrowed her brow. Soryu Asuka Langly, tactless? she had never heard anything so ridiculous in her life. 

"Just something silly," Asuka said tossing aside the magazine.

"Well alright," Hikari sighed. "It's time to get to work."  
The class rep hauled her school issued red laptop out of her school bag. She opened the boxy device and tapped the 'On' button. She pulled her sock-covered feet beneath her legs and rested the computer on her lap. A few clicks and the class rep calmly sank into her homework.

Reluctantly, Asuka pulled out her computer. The machine would only add to the inescapable heat. Tactless, eh? I should write an email and show them tactless. She gulped down the rest of her tea; the girl retained a small ice cube in her mouth. She opened her kanji recognition tutorial. She ran through the words. Emotions. Happiness. Calmness. Moodiness. Frustration were drawn out in crisp acid green strokes on black. 

Example: The frustrated girl yelled at the hapless boy.

Asuka's molars cracked the ice cube under inexorable pressure.

"Stupid example," Asuka mumbled. She hit the 'Next' button. Anger. Jealousy. Three more stupid kanji for that day. Sadness. Loneliness. Confusion. "How about bored?" she muttered. "Sheiste."

"Yes?" Hikari said absentmindedly.  
"Nothing."

Asuka turned to math: Green's theorem for simple closed shapes, been there and done that. She blazed through the questions in fifteen minutes flat. The same for physics. While some of the kanji were alien, she could recognize the equations for three dimensional rigid body motion in Swahili. Another fifteen minutes of rapid typing later, she finished with the science problem set.

Asuka worked like a sprinter, run the straightaway and walk the corner. Hikari approached her homework like a distance runner; she knew her ability and endurance intimately and paced herself.

The red head was finished with sprinting for the moment. The repetitive problem sets were really an insult to her intellect, but she considered a small price to pay to pilot an Eva. She snapped open a web browser window. The address had been a public web, pwb, zodiacweekly for the body, and a business site, biz. Some webmaster had vomited a foul shade of purple onto the gaudy website. A middle aged woman, who wore enough foundation on her face to support Tokyo Tower, simpered out of a black and white photo. Her partner in crime looked like a serial murderer. Asuka found the grossly inaccurate forecast again. After two lines, she decided that she did not want to read more and scrolled past it.

Numerology was spelled out in angular katakana. Type in your name to find out your personality, the text promised.

You are like a mollusc. Hard on the outside, soft on the inside. You pretend to not care about what others think, but attention is actually your life's blood. You possess the capacity to care, but hide it away in hopes that no one will be able to find it.

She hit the back button. It was just as she thought, a bunch of phonies. She was annoyed and bored as she scrolled further down the screen.

A Pepto-Bismol pink heart surrounded a pair of boxes. Type in your names and find out your compatibility, the box proclaimed.

Ryogi Kaji --- Soryu Asuka Langly

She clicked the "Go" button. The names were flooded in the garish pink. When they were filled, the site displayed another screen.

10% compatibility. I would strongly recommend against this match, there is much in both of your pasts that stands in the way. If you're still keen on it, I recommend a wait and see strategy.

She quickly tried another entry.

Ryogi Kaji --- Soryu Asuka

2% compatibility. You might as well shoot for the moon with a bottle rocket, toots. There are easier fish to catch in the sea.

Furious pounding on the keyboard ensued.

Kaji --- Asuka

0% This one will go to nowhere quicker than Wiley E. Coyote off a cliff side. The aftermath of the breakup will be comparable to a Third Impact.

"Are you okay, Asuka?" Hikari asked.

The red haired girl noticed at her white knuckles. She ironed her scowl into a forced grin. "Just peachy," she lied as she unlocked her fingers from their death grip around the LCD screen. 

"Right," Hikari replied absentmindedly and returned to steady click and clack on her screen.

On a whim, she changed the entry.

Shinji --- Asuka

25% This probably won't work out.

While the percent was relieving, it still upset her that the percent was higher than the Kaji + Asuka combinations. She tried again, maybe the program would penalize the second dip again. This time, her name would be first. It was only fitting that the Second Child appear before the Third.

Soryu Asuka --- Ikari Shinji

65% A decent chance for compatibility.

Soryu Asuka Langly --- Ikari Shinji

96% A match decreed by the angels themselves. Only a few rare individuals are blessed with a soulmate of such close karma. You should seize this once per lifetime chance. If you don't, you'll regret this.

Yeah right, she thought and scrolled down to the bottom of the page. Published in 2014, before the appearance of the Third Angel. Angels getting them together, it wasn't even a bad joke, Asuka thought as she tossed her hair. The Seventh angel HAD placed them under the same roof, but it was purely out of operational necessity.

Why didn't you move out? a small voice asked her in her mind. 

Because it's convenient, Asuka answered. 

You could have your own space.

It'll be too much trouble to move again.

I thought that you would live by yourself.

Enough out of you! she thought savagely. Shut up, you stupid doll!

Doll. The First. Ayanami Rei --- Ikari Shinji

100% Destined.

She punched the off button without even giving the shut down command and snapped the screen close. The computer whined down to sleep.

"Are you done, Asuka?" Hikari asked.

"Just taking a break," Asuka said, stretching out and yawning.  
"More tea?"

"Yes, please," Asuka answered in a perfectly reasonable tone.

Sources: http://www.astrology-online.com


End file.
